Efficiencies

[Daveg]

Hi Guys, I'm having a few dramas finding out how to calculate my efficiencies. I'm probably looking in the wrong places but on here it's mentioned loads so it can't be as difficult as i seem to think it is.
I've been using my gear for a couple of years now and I know all my losses etc and have been using recipes from the GW book and hitting the gravities so I know I'm not doing too bad but I'd like to start designing my own recipes. Could someone explain how to do it or point me in the right direction please. I know there's lots of calculators about especially on American sites but I want to be able to work It out myself in metric. Thanks in advance.

 

[pittsy]

Many recipes are set at 75% efficiency so if you are following them and getting the correct gravity and volume then your efficiency is around the same . Using software is easy to find out efficiency by adding all the correct amounts and volumes and what ever into your software and move the efficiency up or down till it matches your gravity in the recipe with your real readings .

 

[rpt]

Nobody ever seems to define what they actually mean by efficiency. Plus software mostly assumes that efficiency is always the same whereas it will be lower for higher gravity brews.

 

[nobyipa]

on beer smith i have been putting in 75% eff

i always plan for a 27 litre brew
and always get the 27 litres into the fermenter

but nearly always get higher ABV sometimes spot on but never under
which i am happy with and don't see any point putting in or working out the exact efficiency
so i presume i have higher than 75% EFF and need to knock up my efficiency a tadge in beer smith ?
but if it works why change it
:drink:

 

[barry44]

I have made 4 all grain brews so far and I reckon I have 65% efficiency.

The way I have worked it out is by making a recipe using 70% efficiency values and altering the efficiency percentage in the brewr software I use until I get an SG that matches what I had.

I found that in the second brew and my third was spot on with a 65% efficiency recipe.

My fourth was higher at 72% but I am not sure if that was due to different malt than previous brews or a dodgy hydrometer reading.

My hydrometer was reading 1.058 @ 22 and once left for an hour or so it dropped to 1.053, which is where it wanted to be. Strange one.

 

[Daveg]

Thanks for the replies fella's. So from that I deduce that everyone uses an online calculator or some kind of Beersmith type program to work it out? No-one actually does it on paper?
I've got Beersmith but haven't got around to using it yet. I'd like to learn how to do it longhand first if possible.

 

[czechneck]

I use brewer's friend - http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/, it's pretty easy and free.

There are different measures of efficiency, but I think for most home brewers we mean 'how much of the possible SG do you manage to get out of the grain'?

 

[jkp]

So far I've tried a few online recipe creators and programs like BrewMate which are very easy to use. Like yourself I was curious if I could calculate the colour, liquid volumes, temps, bittering, etc myself. I did a partial mash recipe a few months ago where I wanted to split the DME additions at the start and end of the boil, which I couldn't seem to do in BrewMate, so I had a go at it using Excel. Wasn't too difficult and checking my results against a few other recipe tools I think I wasn't too far off. I guess what I'm trying to say is, have a go, it is possible!

 

[Daveg]

Hi, I found a post by AKbrewer on Mash efficiency in which there was quite a good explanation of how to calculate said efficiencies. ( I'd post a link if I only knew how!) viewtopic.php?p=431938#p431938
Hopefully that'll work.
I've got an office app on my iPad like Excel in which I've made a simple spreadsheet to calculate total and mash liquor etc and ABV by inputting the grain bill and sg's etc so now hopefully I can also work out my mash and brewhouse efficiencies. As I said I'm sure I'm not that far out because I'm hitting the Sg's stated in GW's recipes but I'd just like to work things out myself instead of just using an online calculator. Thanks for the replies.

 

[BIGJIM72]

Quite happy with the results I get from Brewmate. I find overnight mashing the best way to increase my overall efficiency. If I fly sparge a 90 min mash I generally get 68-70%, fly sparging an overnight mash has got me into the low 80s.